INSTRUCTION ON I. N. SMIRNOV’S TELEGRAM[1]

Written:Written on October 17, 1919Published:First published in 1942 inLenin Miscellany XXXIV.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      page295b.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

1)Give30,000 uniforms.

2)Theentire5th Army to be taken tothe southat once, and
not after the Ishim (for the river Tobol is much larger and
broader than the river Ishim, and the length of the front
when transferred to the river Ishim is insignificantly
shortened).

3)Turnthe offensive in the direction of the Ishim into
a demonstration and withdraw (having prepared for this
in theshortestspace of time) to the river Tobol.

Instructthe Commander-in-Chief to discuss my
proposals 1–3.

[1]Writtenby Lenin on Smirnov’s telegram which reported that
“the morale in Siberia is a firm, Soviet one. By organising local
forces, =we shall cope with Kolchak; =allthat is needed are uniforms
andcartridges.=

Yesterday we went over to the offensive along the
whole front, and expect to reach the Ishimin three weeks”.=

Further, mention was made of the desire of the Communists of the
5th Army that the army be transferred to the Southern Front.
Smirnov proposed that after the Ishim three divisions of this army
should be transferred to the south. “If you provide uniforms for
30,000,” he wrote, “we shall immediately =mobilisethis number of
soldiersin Chelyabinskand the place to which we are going. =Send
only uniforms;we have and will have all the manpower” =

(
underlinings by Lenin) (Collected Works, Fifth Ed., Vol. 51, p. 388).

Thedocument bears a note by Lenin asking that the telegram
be returned to him.